Testing flats or plane surfaces and metallic, reflective coatings

October 1, 2009

Copyright R. E. Parks 2009

Objectives
Learn methods of testing flats for figure and absolute flatness Where is absolute flatness required and where not Concept of absolute testing Learn about inspecting for surface finish quality Grey, pits and full polish Scratches, digs and sleeks Surface texture and mid-spatial frequency roughness and orange peel Learn about cleaning When is it necessary and when it should be avoided Introduction to coating Metal reflective coatings and overcoats Fixture marks and coating defects

October 1, 2009

Copyright R. E. Parks 2009

Where is absolute flatness important?

A flat is a spherical surface of infinite radius A test for flatness is measuring the difference between two flats Does a zero difference means the two are flat? And does it matter? If a plane mirror is used at normal incidence it usually doesnt matter; System can be compensated by re-focusing If a plane mirror is used at non-normal incidence, it will matter: This introduces astigmatism since footprint of beam is elliptical Longer one way than other, more sag one way Also suggests how truly flat mirrors should be tested; Test at non-normal incidence, Ritchey-Common test Another method is the three flat test

October 1, 2009

Copyright R. E. Parks 2009

Ritchey-Common test for flatness

Plane mirror under test is used to rotate center of curvature of concave spherical mirror Footprint of beam on plane mirror is roughly elliptical so sag in plane of page is greater than perpendicular to page if flat has power Orientation of astigmatism will indicate cc or cx power
October 1, 2009 Copyright R. E. Parks 2009 4

Three flat test - example

If all 3 have same power then the difference (match) is the same. Therefore if all 3 are truly flat the matches will be zero in all cases If there is a difference in power it becomes obvious the matches will be different

October 1, 2009

Copyright R. E. Parks 2009

Idea of absolute testing

Idea used to be unique to optics but now in all precision work Machinists rule; test device 10x better than tolerance In optics, test optics no better than optic under test How are test optics errors removed from optic under test Basically, two tests are done, one with optic moved
Then test maps compared to see what errors moved with optic

For complete separation, three tests needed

One movement along each of two axes

Schematic of test optics error removal

September 17, 2009

Copyright R. E. Parks 2009

Testing system fold flat for figure

Need collimated beam large enough to cover clear aperture
Or test flat the size of clear aperture

Flat held in interferometer test fixture with three fingers

Use lightest force possible to just hold flat stable

Align reference flat to interferometer

Two dots superimposed

Align fold flat to reference flat

Two dots superimposed behind reference flat dots Switch to measure mode Check that fold flat is in focus, look at edges

Mask test aperture to clear aperture on fold flat Measure

1st step setting up interferometer

Install transmission flat (TF), reference surface, in bayonet mount In Align mode, align TF return dot behind cross hair Monitor screen with mis-aligned, then aligned return spot

September 17, 2009

Copyright R. E. Parks 2009

2nd step, aligning optic under test

Pair of dots are reflection from both sides of plane window with wedge Align by placing one or the other dot behind the crosshairs Dimmer dot tends to be from rear surface Misaligned, left, and rear surface dot aligned, right

September 17, 2009

Copyright R. E. Parks 2009

10

3rd step, check focus

Once aligned, switch to view mode to see fringes Generally, view will need focusing to avoid diffraction at edge Barely visible fine, vertical fringes are wedge between the two surfaces

September 17, 2009

Copyright R. E. Parks 2009

11

4th step, measure

View on monitor screen Data will depend on settings entered on control screen Image has 75764 good data points Vertical wedge fringes more easily seen here Blank areas around edge due to hot glue blocking view

September 17, 2009

Copyright R. E. Parks 2009

12

Control screen with profile

September 17, 2009

Copyright R. E. Parks 2009

13

Control screen with Zernike polynomials

September 17, 2009

Copyright R. E. Parks 2009

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Problems with testing flats

Noise due to coherent source partially removed with Ring of Fire, lower
September 17, 2009 Copyright R. E. Parks 2009 15

Interference between surfaces

Very parallel (1-2 fringes) but non-flat window Interference between surfaces affects phase unwrapping Problem obvious in fringe pictures, maybe a coating problem also

September 17, 2009

Copyright R. E. Parks 2009

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Interference between surfaces only

Wedge fringes only gotten by removing transmission flat and using interferometer as an illumination and imaging system only Cannot phase shift since no reference surface Can shift by tuning laser source Time delay source is way of phase shifting to measure wedge, effectively also measuring transmitted wavefront Fringes do not move when window tilted
September 17, 2009 Copyright R. E. Parks 2009 17

Details of figure testing

Test on vibration isolated table; two fringe print through
Couple part under test to interferometer

Keep fold flat close to reference flat; air turbulence Use reference flat with same reflectivity as test part; contrast For phase shifting interferometer, break out one fringe
Reduce tilt to near zero; tilt will introduce false coma For test plate need 5 or so fringes to judge power and irregularity

In analysis over elliptical aperture, do not use Zernikes

Just refer to p-v and rms results

Inspection of surface finish

In general, test against dark background
With fold mirror, more difficult because of ground surface background Mirror will be coated for high reflectivity; defects really visible then

Use bright light like microscope illuminator, LED flashlight

Reflect light back until just outside eye pupil when looking through lupe This type examination best for checking complete polish, orange peel If in complete polish, specular surface will have a grey look due to scattered light

Scratches are long defects where glass surface has fractured

Inspection for texture and orange peel

A straight line separation of bright and dark is best type of source Scratches readily apparent if aligned parallel to light/dark line with scratch over dark area. Scratch seen by scattered light against dark Similarly, orange peel seen at grazing incidence against dark/light line Boundary will show a waviness like shadows of orange peel A bare fluorescent line bulb with black paper behind is excellent source

September 17, 2009

Copyright R. E. Parks 2009

20

Cleaning
In general, dont For inspection of surface quality it will be necessary If obviously dirty, blow off, raise with soap and water, blow dry If still dirty, use edge of folded tissue wet with IPA, or acetone Wear gloves or finger cots, otherwise grease from fingers will contaminate Wipe from above center to edge, discard tissue and use another for next wipe Idea is to avoid dragging contamination from edge onto surface and to avoid contamination from previous wipe Keep tissue handy because sometimes an apparent defect is dirt Dont want to reject surface by mistaking dirt for a defect

September 17, 2009

Copyright R. E. Parks 2009

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